Chaz,I pre pop cornicion bubbles and stand at the ready with a long poker during the bake if I have an aggresive ferment dough.fwiw, been seeing a few really nice looking pies recently where folks used AT/AP and BF/AP....Hmmm...

I wish I could see you going to town on the bubbles with that poker What do pizza shops do? I have seen bubbles on their pies but usually not burned like mine...lol

scott123

I can't tell from the shot in the oven, but did you take the mill scale (dark colored coating) off? It's not essential that you do, I'm just curious what your cleaning regime was.

The temperature you should be shooting for is whatever temp you need

Seriously, though, there are a variety of factors involved, hydration of the dough, fermentation time, added sugar/residual sugar, oil, thickness factor, desired style- these all impact the temperature you'll need to bake the pizza at.

The good news is that 574 will give you any non Neapolitan bake time you could possibly want. With 1/2" steel, 574 might even break the 2 minute Neapolitan barrier- on the undercrust, of course. The top would most likely require a stronger broiler than you currently have (it wouldn't hurt to check, though), making the Neapolitan undercrust capability moot.

Generally speaking, for NY style, you're going to want to be in the 500-525 realm. If you're going with the last formula you used:

Scott when I got the steel home last night, I just wiped it down with a sponge and some warm water. Seemed like most of the black stuff came off. Is there something else I should do with it?

I was able to get the steel to just under 600 (the same as my stone) after about an hour of it being in at 550. As far as a recipe goes, I think I will go with a combination of the AT and ConAgra BF (which has about as much protein as KAAP). So i think it will do something along the lines of your recipe. Do you think I should still go with the oven temp at 500? How about using the broiler?

Im gonna do the dough tonight with an expected bake on friday or saturday. I will post the specifics later.

scott123

Chaz, mill scale is just iron oxide- which is no different than the iron you might consume eating with cast iron cookware. That being said, most people take it off. The easiest way is an overnight soak in vinegar and then a good scouring.

If you don't take off the mill scale, I'd still definitely give it a good scrubbing with soap and water. I've been pretty anti-seasoning in the past, because I haven't felt like it would be stable at pizza baking temps, but I'm seeing lower temp baking plates (such as Marc's aluminum) take on and maintain seasoning, so a very light layer of vegetable oil wouldn't hurt.

Is the Conagra flour bromated? If so, I don't see any reason for the AT whatsoever- other than using it up.

That formula looks good.

Definitely- go with a 500 pre-heat. Position the plate on a shelf about 5-7 inches away from the broiler and turn on the broiler for part of the bake. In my 4.5 to 5 minute bake, I turn on the broiler at the 1:30 point and leave it on until the end, unless I feel like the top is taking on too much color and I shut it off. It takes some trial and error to get the broiling right.

Ok...I will scrub it a little better (after a vinegar bath) and then season it a bit.

The Conagra is not bromated, so I used a 60/40 mix. As I said in previous posts, I was just a little mad at how bubbly the crust got and the fact that those bubbles burned. Im hoping that the mix will cut down on that a bit. We will see.

I will go with a 500 preheat and then go from there. Ahhhhhhh....the thrill of the chase!!